Literal meaning, but usually used for comic effect.
Read the full origin →Established 1997 · researched & written by Gary Martin
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Never give a sucker an even break
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148 published notes correcting and extending our entries.
Saint Peter famously walked on water when he was full of faith. But when his faith left him, he sank. It makes sense that "petered out" could be a reference to this.
Jane Eyre, chapter 17, has "beauty is in the eye of the gazer" in quotes. It's 1847, so well before Hungerford.
I live on an island of buildings going to rack and ruin and appreciate the sentiment. I find it interesting that the term's usage spiked following WWI, when Europe was in a state…
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From the Phrase Finder Digest
- The Bank Holiday Moved Dates, But These Rest Phrases Never Changed Meaning
The August bank holiday shifted from the first Monday of the month to the last for most of the UK in the late 1960s. The phrases we use about rest and idleness have their own, stranger histories.
26 August 2026
- The Ashes Urn Takes Its Name From A Funeral Service, Not A Cricket Pitch
Cricket's oldest rivalry has given English two phrases that behave very differently under scrutiny. One is a genuine pitch condition with a real Victorian source; the other borrows its name from a burial service, not the game itself.
19 August 2026
Based on Google Books usage over the last ~25 years. Refreshes each build.
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- MeaningBeauty contestA competition in which entrants, usually women, are judged and ranked according to their physical appearance.
- MeaningComfort womenA euphemistic term for the women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied territories before and during the Second World War.
- MeaningEyebrow raisingSomething eyebrow raising is surprising or shocking enough to provoke a look of disbelief or disapproval.
- MeaningFlog a dead horseTo flog a dead horse is to keep trying to revive interest in something that has already died out or to persist with an effort that can no longer achieve anything.
- MeaningGut feelingAn instinctive sense that something is true or right, felt rather than reasoned out.
- MeaningOver my dead bodyA defiant declaration that the speaker will fight with everything they have to stop something from happening.
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Phrases.org.uk has been documenting the meaning and origin of phrases, sayings and idioms since 1997. Every entry is researched and written by Gary Martin, with citations to the earliest printed use we can find.
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